Kipkemoi Crushes Home Favourite Hassan, Kipkorir Falls Just Short In Hengelo
10th June 2019
East Africans dominated the men and women 5000m races of the 2019 FBK Games in Netherlands on Sunday night
- After announcing her ambition earlier this week to break her own European 5000m record in Hengelo, Sifan Hassan fell 16 seconds short of her target and was convincingly beaten by Chelimo
- Three days after winning at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rome, Haile Bekele was pushed all the way by Kipkorir but did just enough to hold off the Kenyan
- Kendricks scaled that height on his first try and then cleared 5.61m on his first attempt and 5.81m on his second. He then put the bar up to 5.91m and once again cleared it on his first try
HENGELO, Netherlands- Kenya's Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi delivered a convincing victory over home favourite Sifan Hassan as countryman Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli just fell short of upstaging Ethiopian sensation Telahun Haile Bekele in the women and men 5000m races of the FBK Games meeting in Hengelo on Sunday night.
After announcing her ambition earlier this week to break her own European 5000m record in Hengelo, Sifan Hassan fell 16 seconds short of her target and was convincingly beaten by Chelimo.
Hassan was unable to follow the Wavelight – an electronic system on the inside of the track that lights up to reflect a desired pace – and so unwittingly became a pacemaker for the rest of the field, passing 2000m in 5:46.74 and 3000m in 8:42.87.
A lead pack of four – Hassan, Kipkemboi, Eva Cherono and Hawi Feysa – began to pull away in the second half, even though the pace continued to decrease. Cherono led for much of the final kilometre but was passed by the three other women in the lead pack as they reached the final lap.
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Hassan hit the front, but couldn’t shake off the challenge of Kipkemboi and Feysa. With 100 metres left, Kipkemboi passed a struggling Hassan and went on to win in a world-leading 14:37.22, the second-fastest time of her career. Hassan finished second in 14:38.54, 0.22 ahead of Feysa.
Good form
The men’s race was even closer, but this time the pre-race favourite came out on top.
Three days after winning at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rome, Haile Bekele was pushed all the way by Kipkorir but did just enough to hold off the Kenyan.
Bekele won in 12:57.56 with Kimeli close behind in a PB of 12:57.90.
Elsewhere, world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks broke one of the oldest FBK Games meeting records at the IAAF World Challenge meeting.
The previous meeting record of 5.90m was set by Sergey Bubka back in 1992. Since then, the closest anyone had come to the mark in the Dutch city was 5.85m, but even that was 20 years ago.
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Kendricks, however, is riding a wave of good form, having won at the IAAF Diamond League meetings in Doha and Stockholm last month. Here in Hengelo he was a class apart as no one else in the field went higher than 5.51m.
Kendricks scaled that height on his first try and then cleared 5.61m on his first attempt and 5.81m on his second. He then put the bar up to 5.91m and once again cleared it on his first try.
-Report by Eric Roeske for the IAAF